UT Permian Basin men's basketball looks to play spoiler this week when the Falcons travel to the 2019 Lone Star Conference Men's Basketball Championships at Comerica Center in Frisco, Texas.
The #7-seed Falcons draw a familiar opponent in their quarter finals match up at 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, taking on #2 Texas A&M Commerce. The Falcons defeated Commerce 102-92 last Thursday.
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"The positives are not a lot is going to change. We just played them a week ago and its two teams that are going through different phases in the season. They had a couple of guys get injured and are going to get one of their best players back for Thursday," said head coach
Josh Newman. "We have played really well against them, but it'll be a little bit of a different team. A little bit of known, a little bit of unknown. The first time we played at their place, we didn't have
Xavier Ledet. Thursday is going to come down to all about who will make the needed adjustments first."
The Falcons and Lions split the season series, with Texas A&M Commerce taking a seven-point, 85-78 win over UTPB at the end of January. The Lions finished second in the Lone Star Conference, ending the year 13-5 in league play and 21-7 overall. They went 5-2 to end the year and earlier in the season had an eight-game win streak spanning a month and a half.
"Any time you play in march it doesn't matter what seed you are, it's all about how you're playing and the matchup," said Newman. "We like the matchup we have. Right now I don't know if anyone would want to play us with how we can score shoot the ball. I expect us to do well, it's a matter of will we take care of the basketball and how do we play on defense."
The Falcons ended the season ranked first in the Lone Star Conference, scoring 85.5 points per game while also leading the conference by shooting 49.4 percent from the field.
Jacob Ledoux was the LSC scoring champion, averaging 18.1 points per game. He became the fourth player in UTPB history to score over 500 points in a game, ending the year with 506.
While the Falcons make their living on offense, Newman knows they will only go as far as their defense takes them this weekend.
"If we're able to play hard on defense and get stops, our offense will play really well. If we aren't getting stops then we won't be able to get down in transition," said Newman. "Then a lot has to do with being able to make open shots. It's all about rhythm, and we need to make sure we're trying to play as well as we can on both sides of the ball."
Thursday's winner advances in the Lone Star Conference Championships and will play the winner of #3 Angelo State and #6 Texas A&M Kingsville Saturday afternoon at noon.
